Top 8 Feature Match: Jonathan Cortez vs. Angel Flores
Angel Flores is here in the Top 8 piloting a Gemini Deck like one that made the top cut 3 weeks ago in YCS Toronto. But his opponent is Jonathan Cortez, a Machina Gadget Duelist. Machina Gadgets are usually a pretty good matchup for Gemini, since an early Elemental Hero Stratos can create enough momentum to leave the Gadget Duelist on the defensive.
Flores opened with Reinforcement of the Army, Book of Moon, Effect Veiler, Gorz the Emissary of Darkness, Mystical Space Typhoon, and Gemini Spark. Reinforcement got him Elemental Hero Stratos from his Deck, and he Summoned it to search out Elemental Hero Neos Alius. He Set Book and Typhoon.
Cortez Summoned Red Gadget, but Flores negated its effect with Effect Veiler. Cortez destroyed Stratos with Smashing Ground, then attacked with Red Gadget.
Flores drew and Summoned Thunder King Rai-Oh, attacking Red Gadget to destroy it.
Cortez destroyed Thunder King with another Smashing Ground, and discarded 2 Machina Fortress to Special Summon 1 of them. He attacked, and Flores turned his Fortress face-down with Book of Moon to block the damage. With 2 cards left in-hand Cortez ended.
Flores drew Honest, Summoned Neos Alius, and Set Gemini Spark.
Cortez Flip Summoned Machina Fortress, and attacked, but lost it to Gemini Spark. He Set a Spell or Trap.
Flores passed.
Cortez Set a Spell or Trap.
Flores used E – Emergency Call to search his Deck for Elemental Hero Neos Alius. He Summoned it, but Cortez removed it with Bottomless Trap Hole. The Duel stood at 7400 Life Points to 6700, with Cortez in the lead.
He Summoned Machina Gearframe, searched his Deck for Machina Force, and attacked for 1800 Battle Damage. Flores responded with Mystical Space Typhoon, destroying Cortez’s Solemn Judgment and clearing his own Spell and Trap Card Zone so he could Special Summon Gorz. Cortez cleared the field in Main Phase 2 with Dark Hole, ending with 2 cards in hand.
Flores had 4 cards in hand next turn, and Summoned Honest to make a quick attack. He bounced it back to his hand with its effect, and Set 2 cards to his back row.
Cortez discarded Machina Force to Special Summon Machina Fortress, but Flores destroyed it with Torrential Tribute. He Set a Spell or Trap.
Flores Summoned Honest, and attack, but Cortez activated Dimensional Prison. Flores saved his Honest with Book of Moon.
Cortez Summoned Yellow Gadget, got Green Gadget from his Deck, and activated Monster Reborn to bring back his Fortress. Fortress attacked to destroy Honest, and Yellow Gadget made a direct attack. Flores had 3700 Life Points left.
He drew Doomcaliber Knight, Summoned it, and attacked to destroy Yellow Gadget. He Set a Spell or Trap.
Cortez attacked Doomcaliber, destroyed it, and Summoned Green Gadget in Main Phase 2 to get Red Gadget from his Deck.
Flores drew and Set a Spell or Trap, then Set a monster.
Cortez attacked with Machina Fortress, destroying Flores’ Honest. Green Gadget made another direct attack. Cortez Set Solemn Warning, and when he used it to negate Flores’ attempt at Special Summoning Cyber Dragon next turn, Flores was out of options and had to concede!
Angel Flores gets off to a very strong start, but a grinding pace and plenty of monster removal triumphs in the end, as Jonathan Cortez wins the first Duel of the Match. Both Duelists appeared to make heavy use of their Side Decks.
Flores started Duel 2 with Gemini Spark, Dimensional Prison, Elemental Hero Neos Alius, Thunder King Rai-Oh, Doomcaliber Knight, and Solemn Warning. He Summoned Thunder King, and Set Prison and Warning.
Cortez destroyed Thunder King with Smashing Ground, then tried to Summon Machina Gearframe. Flores negated the Summon with Solemn Warning. Cortez Set a single card to his back row and ended.
Flores Summoned Doomcaliber Knight, attacked, and scored a direct hit. He Set the Torrential Tribute he’d drawn this turn.
Cortez discarded 2 Machina Fortresses and Special Summoned 1 of them. He then attacked, but Flores responded with Dimensional Prison.
Flores drew Pot of Duality, and used it to reveal another Duality, plus Honest and Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo. He took Honest, then Summoned Neos Alius. Then he made 2 more direct attacks, dropping Cortez to 2300 Life Points. He Set a card to his back row.
Cortez activated Dark Hole, but Flores Chained Gemini Spark, and destroyed Cortez’s Royal Oppression! Cortez Summoned Yellow Gadget, searched out Green Gadget, and attacked.
Flores drew Monster Reborn! He activated it, Special Summoned Thunder King, and attacked to destroy Yellow Gadget. Cortez was down to 1600 Life Points.
Cortez Set a Spell or Trap, Summoned Blackwing – Gale the Whirlwind, halved Thunder King’s ATK and DEF, then ended without attacking.
Flores attacked with Thunder King, and powered over Gale’s higher ATK with Honest.
Cortez Set a second Spell or Trap.
Thunder King attacked next turn, but Cortez activated Mirror Force. Flores next got Elemental Hero Stratos with E – Emergency Call. He lost the Stratos to Bottomless Trap Hole when he tried to Summon it, but got another Neos Alius from his Deck with Stratos’ effect. He activated Pot of Duality, revealing System Down, Cyber Dragon, and Solemn Warning. He took the Dragon into his hand.
Cortez Summoned Green Gadget to get Red Gadget from his Deck, then discarded 2 copies of Red Gadget to try and bring back Machina Fortress. When it hit the field, Flores flipped Torrential Tribute and Cortez conceded!
Angel Flores takes the second Duel with authority, overwhelming Cortez with big attacker after big attacker! Whoever won the next Duel would move on to the Top 4, with a strong shot at winning a set of the Darklord Prize Cards.
Cortez opened with Machina Gearframe, getting Machina Fortress from his Deck. He Set 3 cards to his back row.
Flores’ hand was Pot of Duality, Solemn Warning, Elemental Hero Neos Alius, Dimensional Prison, E – Emergency Call, and Gemini Spark. He activated Call to get Elemental Hero Stratos from his Deck, Summoned Neos Alius, and Cortez responded with Bottomless Trap Hole. Flores Chained Gemini Spark, Tributed Alius, and destroyed his opponent’s Solemn Warning. He then Set a Spell or Trap, activated Duality, and revealed Solemn Warning, Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo, and Effect Veiler. He took the Warning, Set 2 cards to his back row, and ended.
Cortez tried to Summon Breaker the Magical Warrior, and lost it to Solemn Warning. Machina Gearframe attacked for 1800 Battle Damage.
Flores Summoned Elemental Hero Stratos, got another Neos Alius from his Deck, and activated another Pot of Duality to reveal Doomcaliber Knight, Cyber Dragon, and Royal Oppression. He took Doomcaliber Knight. He attacked with Stratos, trying to trade with Machina Gearframe, but Stratos was removed with Dimensional Prison. Flores Set a third Spell or Trap.
Cortez tried to Summon Yellow Gadget, but was stopped by Solemn Warning. He attacked with Machina Gearframe and lost Gearframe to Dimensional Prison. He Set a Spell or Trap.
Flores Summoned Doomcaliber Knight, and attacked, but his monster was removed by Dimensional Prison. He Set a second Spell or Trap.
Cortez discarded 2 Machina Fortresses, tried to Summon 1 of them, but the Summon was negated by another Solemn Warning.
Flores activated Reinforcement of the Army, got another Alius, and Summoned it to attack directly. The Duel stood at 6100 Life Points to 200.
Cortez activated Smashing Ground to try and destroy Alius, Flores Chained Gemini Spark, Tributed Alius, and destroyed Cortez’s Book of Moon.
Flores Summoned Doomcaliber Knight and attacked for 1900 Battle Damage.
Cortez was down to topdecking, and drew Pot of Duality. He revealed Mystical Space Typhoon, Gearframe and Green Gadget. He took the Gearframe, Summoned it, and Doomcaliber was Tributed to negate Gearframe’s effect.
Flores Set a Spell or Trap and Summoned Neos Alius. He had 2 set back row cards and Alius, and attacked.
Cortez drew a card and Set it to his back row.
Flores Drew and Set a card to his back row, and Set another Spell or Trap. He lost it to Mystical Space Typhoon in the End Phase, but it was a bluff – Dark Hole. Flores was clearly happy that he had kept his other 2 remaining Set cards. We found out why immediately.
Cortez tried to Summon another Gearframe, but Flores had Solemn Judgment! He dropped to 100 Life Points to negate the Summon, and Cortez was totally out of cards. Triple Solemn Warning plus a final Solemn Judgment send Flores on his way to the Top 8!
Post-Event Analysis!
See what our panel of experts had to say about this Duel after the event was over.
Jason Grabher-Meyer (The Old Man of Dueling)
While Cortez had Bottomless Trap Hole Set, Flores searched Stratos from his Deck, but then Summoned Neos Alius instead. To Cortez, that must’ve looked like the perfect time to activate Bottomless – he’d rather remove Alius with Bottomless, and save his Set Solemn Warning to negate Stratos’ Summon (that would stop Flores from activating Stratos’ effect). But since Bottomless doesn’t negate a Summon, Flore was able to Chain Gemini Spark to destroy Corez’s Warning. Both Duelists lost 2 cards, but Flores got to draw with Spark, and cleared the way for his Stratos next turn.
Michael Kohanim (2009 World Championship Competitor)
In Duel 1, Flores activated Book of Moon to prevent Machina Fortress from scoring a direct hit for 2500 points of damage. Since it was early in the Duel and Flores still had 8000 Life Points remaining, he could have taken the hit and used the Book of Moon later on, to protect one of his monsters.
P.J. Tierney (Duelist from across The Pond)
Gorz the Emissary of Darkness is one of the strongest cards available that can swing Duels back in your favor, but you must have no cards in your field in order to Summon it. With Traps and Quick-Play Spell Cards though, you can trick your opponent into thinking you don’t have Gorz in your hand (because you Set a card, preventing you from Summoning it) only to flip that Set card over in the Battle Phase. By the time you take the damage needed to Summon Gorz, your field will be empty again, and your opponent will now have a 2700 ATK monster (and a Token) to deal with. This is exactly what Flores did in Duel 1, activating Mystical Space Typhoon on one of Cortez’s cards in the Battle Phase, allowing him to Summon the Gorz in his hand while destroying one of his opponent’s cards in the process.